Anniversary video
SVP members and volunteers made this video about the history of SVP logo for the SVP 75th Anniversary. Watch this video to find out when and who made the SVP logo!

Welcome from the 2015 Host Committee

Greetings!

On behalf of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and Southern Methodist University, the Host Committee of the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology welcomes you to Dallas. This historic meeting, celebrating the 75th anniversary of our Society, will be held at the Hyatt Regency Dallas, one of the most iconic luxury hotels in downtown Dallas.

Within easy walking distance is Dallas’ Historic West End, an area once settled by Caddo Indians, and later purchased by Tennessee lawyer John Neely Bryan in the mid-1800s. Bryan went on to found the city of Dallas, and in nearby Dealy Plaza tourists can visit a replica of Bryan’s cabin. Dallas’ West End is now home to numerous shopping and dining venues.

Leaving the Hyatt Regency Dallas and on the other side of the West End district is the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science. With a history that includes the former Dallas Museum of Natural History, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science opened its new doors in December 2012. The exhibition halls were developed with the help of several partnerships, and much of the content of the museum’s T. Boone Pickens Life Then & Now hall is the result of close co-operation and contributions between the Museum and Southern Methodist University. In addition to the dynamic partnership between these two institutions, the professional paleontological community in Dallas works closely with and benefits from an active group of avocational paleontologists, the Dallas Paleontological Society, and the role of avocational paleontologists is also part the story told at the Perot Museum.

Together, we welcome all of you to Dallas for what is sure to be an enlightening assemblage of the world’s most engaged vertebrate paleontologists at the 75th Anniversary Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in 2015.

To view photos of participants and the schedule from the last SVP meeting held in Dallas, in 1973, please visit the Shuler Museum webpage at https://sites.smu.edu/shulermuseum. We need help to update the captions identify the participants! Please contact Dale Winkler at dwinkler@smu.edu if you recognize any of the unidentified people.

About the 2015 Annual Meeting Logo

The 75th anniversary meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology will be held in Dallas, Texas, USA. The great state of Texas is fortunate to encompass a broad spectrum of geological regions, providing a diverse range of paleontological exploration and discoveries within the state. From the classic Permian redbeds of north-central Texas, to the fossil-rich Late Triassic exposures of the Texas Panhandle, Cretaceous exposures from the Big Bend region of western Texas stretching across the state beyond Dallas and Austin, through the broad expanse of Cenozoic coastal plain deposits in the south and east, and a rich Pleistocene record all across the state, Texas provides a remarkable breadth of paleontological opportunities. Even within a two hour’s drive from Dallas one can find Permian, Early Cretaceous, Late Cretaceous, Paleogene, and Pleistocene vertebrate fossil-bearing sites. This remarkable diversity of paleontological resources also means it is difficult to identify any one, ubiquitous fossil or iconic fossil taxon as representative of the area. The 2015 SVP meeting logo therefore embraces the fossil richness of the entire state of Texas, using the silhouette of the state emblazoned with the colors and styling of the distinctive Lone Star flag of Texas. Another component of the 2015 SVP meeting logo is the use of the Society’s classic emblem, drawn by Margaret Colbert in 1943. Dallas was the home of Jacob Boll (1828-1880), a student of Louis Agassiz who established the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. Boll first collected Permian vertebrate fossils from Archer County, Texas. Boll gave the fossils he collected to Edward Drinker Cope, who would designate one as the type of Eryops megacephalus. Boll would go on to collect in the Permian red beds of Texas for E. D. Cope in the late 1870s, until Boll’s death in the field in 1880. The four fossil vertebrae incorporated into the SVP logo are those of Eryops. The incorporation of the Society’s emblem in the 2015 SVP Annual Meeting logo serves as a reminder of the historical link between Dallas, Texas paleontology, and the 75 year history of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

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